Deliver Unto Us: Hellboy 3 – By Gavin Muirhead

Gavin gives his case, for why now is the time for a third installment in the Hellboy franchise.

What can I say… We’ve been asking, no hounding for a finale to the Hellboy franchise for years now. Now I ask the question, are we about to get it?

If there was ever a frontrunner for the face Dark Horse Comics, Hellboy has to be it. Sure, they have some other notable titles running through the archives, like 300 and Sin City even Conan – but none of those books or movies after the books grabbed the world like Hellboy does and did.

Editor’s note: Sure, I’ll give you 300. But Sin City and Conan both supersede Hellboy, whether it’s in film or print. Especially Conan in film.

Hellboy is something truly rare in the comic world, he has an origin story that doesn’t involve something depressing and tragic. He is not a human, or human-like alien from a dead planet, his parents didn’t get shot and most certainly isn’t a gamma experiment gone wrong. Hellboy is a demon, summoned by occultist Nazi troops during World War II and is officially known as Anung Un Rama, The Right Hand Of Doom, as well as a few other names. While he should be the ultimate bad guy, instead he was discovered by Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm, an occult expert assisting the Allied Forces.

Prof. Bruttenholm takes a young frightened Hellboy and shows him love and raises him as his own child, despite his bright red color and solid stone right hand. Once a demon summoned to end the world, he is now a demon who loves cats and eats more pancakes than John Goodman at Sunday brunch.

After two rather successful Hellboy movies, 2004’s “Hellboy” and 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” Universal Pictures should be able to justify a third and final installment based on numbers alone. This, however, is not the problem we seem to be having. The real reason we do not have a Hellboy III in the works is simply because Guillermo del Toro is too busy doing other projects, and Ron Perlman is pushing 70. Guillermo just wrapped up the sure to flop “Pacific Rim” so with any luck, he will have time to put his amazing brains to good use and give us the superhero movie we all deserve, and the one we actually need right now.

Every superhero movie recently released or currently in development has taken the same exact path, “The Batman Road” we have come to call it around here. Ever since Christopher Nolan gracefully gave meaning and depth to a rebooted Batman franchise, we lost the feel good aspect of superhero movies. Batman Begins did two things to the superhero genre at the exact same time: Made them epic, and made them repeatedly dark for no reason. We lost Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, The Green Lantern was horrible, Iron Man is having an identity crisis, and Kryptonite no longer hurts Superman?

What the hell happened here?

Hellboy always stayed out of this Rinse-Lather-Repeat mindset and Guillermo del Toro never fails to deliver when it comes to grand creature driven concepts and amazing cinematography, Pan’s Labyrinth, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, in addition to Hellboy really show this off.

Now that Ron Perlman is starting to show his age and according to IGN, he is getting restless and has been sending Guillermo shots of his still in shape body in hopes of prodding him into writing the finale chapter, that’s the way it should be. Ron gave Hellboy the on-screen persona and mannerisms that no one else could have done. It took at least four hours of makeup every day, shooting in hot weather with tons of demanding physicality, and it speaks volumes that Ron would be so committed to this project at his age. When your lead actor is prepping for a role that doesn’t exist, and constantly sending you updates on himself, and you have a fan base asking the same questions for 5 years – how could you not be inspired to pick up a pen?

Hellboy has always been very close to the heart of Guillermo del Toro, he is a vocal fan himself and the only person anyone wants to see behind this project. Ron is on board, What’s-Her-Face isn’t doing anything (Editor’s note: Selma Blair, and yes, she is doing something. Charlie Sheen’s shitty show on FX, Anger Management. So yeah, there’s that. I’m sure she’s loving that sweet T.V. money. though), and the fans are willing to trample one another for tickets.